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Interview With X-Plane Developer Gunther Kremp

Development

Gunther, when did you start developing for flight simulators
and what started your interest in it?

My virtual flying career began way back with FS3! Back in those
days it was just amazing just to see the 'plane' get into the air.
There were no fancy 3D graphics like we have today...everything was
very basic: blue lines represented a river and a green polygon was a
mountain, but for all its primitive look...I learned a lot about
aviation and navigation!

Later on I was introduced to FS98, which was far superior visually
and also much more exciting! This was mainly due to the fact that you
could download a wide range of sceneries from the internet (a
relatively new experience back then). From FS98 I moved to FSX, and
then from FSX to X-Plane 9. Today I fly exclusively and
enthusiastically with X-Plane 11!

Three years ago I was lucky to take early retirement, which meant I
was able to dedicate more time to my main hobby. One of the things I
had always wanted to do was model my hometown (city) with models that
were available from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse. At first I was
slightly unsure of how to proceed, but 'maydayc' from the Aerosoft
forums gave me advice on how to proceed. When I had finished my
hometown of Essen in Germany, I decided I would model the entire Ruhr
area.

With this initial project done, a thought came into my mind; why
not model additional sceneries? I had the time, the
enthusiasm...everything really! My good friend, PilotBalu from
SimHeaven, persuaded me to share the sceneries I had created and I am
very glad I did. Sharing is so important, and why shouldn't I give
something back to the community?

Could you tell us about the nature of your designs and what
you do Gunther?

I concentrate exclusively on modeling large areas of Germany. To
do this, I use SKP files which are available at the SketchUp
Warehouse. I then convert these objects into X-Plane's .obj file
format, which take takes several steps. The programs I use to
accomplish this task are: SketchUp Maker, Ashampoo Photo Commander,
ModelConveterX, FS2XPlane and Overlay Editor. Unfortunately, there is
a major drawback to this method - for each model used, many individual
.obj and .dds files are generated. However, from Leipzig onward
(created June 2017), I have started to use a new procedure which is
far more efficient and uses less resources. For this new technique I
use: SketchUp Make, ModelConverterX, AC3D, XGrinder and then
OverlayEditor.

What do you consider your best or most popular
work?

So far my most popular work (by downloads) are Berlin,
Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg and Innsbruck. However, for international
users I can highly recommend my home sceneries of Ruhrgebiet-West and
Ruhrgebiet-Ost.

What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of a
project?

The most challenging aspect of a project is a) the time needed to
complete it and b) the perseverance to stick with it! When I first
started creating sceneries, objects took around 20 minutes to
complete, but today, because of practice, the same object only takes
between 5 - 10 minutes.